A Year in the Life Series: Kristen Brown

Kristen Brown is like many business mothers. She cares for her daughter, who is three, and her lap dog, an 85 pound black Lab named Cosmo.

She is also at the helm of two companies she founded in 2009. The first, Happy Hour Effect LLC, is a health supplement developed to help ease the stress of work and to promote work and life balance, something all working mothers are trying to find.This company offers online resources and Kristen also does speaking and consulting.

The second, Up-Side Industries, is a bit more personal and began from tragedy after Kristen’s healthy, athletic 30-year old husband Todd died unexpectedly from a heart attack in his sleep. He had suffered no previous symptoms and had no risk factors. For this company Kristen is both a speaker and a writer.

As of now, Kristen’s biggest challenge lies in the non-stop work dedicated to building national awareness for her Happy Hour Effect ™ product. Her hope is to drive sales of the product upwards. In addition, she wants to become a good role model for her daughter and has to find time to do this while running two companies – as a single mother and sole provider. Not an easy task, as I’m sure we can all agree.

Kristen’s goal for the new year is to live what she preaches and to balance both her personal and professional lives. “It’s difficult to separate the two when I love what I do for work now that I have left the constraints of corporate America. But I know I need to carve out more “me-time” and take more vacations – even if it’s just a stay-cation at home with my computer and phone shut off!”

Kristen’s biggest success last year was her ability to leave corporate America and follow the ideas of her own ventures, though, as a single mother, it did not come without some fear. “I knew that saving my sanity and health for my daughter was more important than a big paycheck,” Kristen writes. “This move has been the most exhilarating and satisfying work (and life) experience I have ever had.”

And her hopes for accomplishment this year? Above and beyond following the companies where they will take her, past the crazy beginning stages most business owners face, Kristen hopes to spend more time writing, finishing up a memoir she began after her husband died and possibly pursuing a few other story ideas that are bouncing around in her head.

Join us this year as we watch Kristen expand her companies and follow her dreams!